Country: Serbia
Genre: Black metal
Full length: Kletva
Format: Digital, digipack CD, vinyl (see Bandcamp link for more information)
Label: Immortal Frost Productions
Release date: November 28, 2025
Based on what I’ve read, Serbian black metal is rarely discussed. An example is The Stone, formed in 1996 as Stone to Flesh. Emerging under the shadow of the well-known Norwegian and Swedish black metal scenes, they have faced an ongoing uphill battle. It wasn't until their 2002 debut, "Словенска крв" (Slovenian Blood) that their lyrical focus shifted from Serbian paganism to themes of nihilism, misanthropy, and existentialism. This marked the beginning of a significant transition from traditional black metal themes to their own unique perspectives on life and the world, almost creating a philosophical side to nihilism and misanthropy.
With the lyrical evolution of "Kletva," The Stone refined their sound and the black metal style characteristic of their home country, transforming it into something persistent and urgent. This transformation made them compelling enough to attract black metal fans across multiple countries. Their style features a primitive, tribal percussion that uses its own momentum to shift the mood and tone of a song, embellishing the chosen tempos with consistent fills to enhance the sense of urgency. This fosters a tighter interplay with raw guitars and bass, combined with cleverly written progressions, ensuring everything is closely knit and cohesive.
The formula The Stone develops for this album strikes me not as a bleak, stormy outpouring of sarcasm and bitterness. Instead, it strikes me as an internal tempest, an intense struggle to reject doctrines and ideologies adopted by people, ideologies that lack true meaning or substance, or true spiritual worth. It captures the disenchantment and dissatisfaction that arises, alongside a passionate, fervent quest for personal understanding and authenticity. From this perspective, the tight restraint of the songs makes sense. It’s an internal process of discovering questions, forging answers, and developing a personal perspective—preparing it for eventual release.
"Kletva" travels far beyond black metal’s expected blasphemous content, as the existential questioning, challenging and forming of metaphysical thoughts putting to the test people who weaponize God and withstanding rebuke is pictured with monumental resourcefulness. The convictions that grew from Slavic paganism are symbolized by pensiveness, elegance and passion. Changes in tempo, sections with rumbling bass and relentless bombast, tremolo-picked lead guitar passages and enraged screams all represent this process of searching for answers, finding moments of clarity and moving forward to establish your own ontology. –Dave Wolff
Lineup:
Glad: Vocals
Kozeljnik: Lead Guitar
INIMICVS: Rhythm guitar
Vrag: Bass
Honza Kapák: Drums
Track list:
1. Sve sravnjeno, sve spaljeno
2. Kletve lovor
3. Trag u večnosti
4. Slutnja
5. Denying the Axiom
6. Besi
7. Sveća je dogorela
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